I work with a lot of young people getting started in their careers. Those who chase the highest possible starting salary, most prestigious title, or sexiest-sounding company do worse than those who ignore all of that and focus on value creation, no matter how humble. You are your best investment. There is no IRA, real […]
deferred gratification
Why Hopeful Realism Beats Mandatory Optimism
One unavoidable piece of advice today is be positive. Weβre supposed to filter out supposed negativity in meetings, reports, and general conversation because we think positivity produces the results we want. Optimism is almost mandatory in some environments. As Dan Lovallo and Daniel Kahneman point out, critical feedback is discouraged and treated like disloyalty. βThe […]
How to Say No When it Counts
Sometimes you just have to say no. That isnβt always easy. But there are strategies that can help say no when you need toβand save your time, energy, and sanity in the process. Motivational speaker Byron V. Garrett, my former boss at National PTA, often says that you only have twelve hours a day to […]